The 2015 IPCPR Trade Show saw the introduction of the Acme Cigar Company brand. It is pretty amazing that no one thought to register the name before, as it is such a great name. The Acme Premier San Andres, though being part of their higher end line, retails at a reasonable price. The mix of San Andres wrapper and binder with a second Nicaragua binder and filler makes for a flavorful full bodied cigar. The Acme Premier San Andres makes for a great everyday cigar.

Pre-Light: The Acme Premier San Andres feature a dark chocolate colored Mexican San Andres Broadleaf wrapper that is dry to the touch, yet has a slight oily sheen to it. There are several noticeable veins, like one would expect from a San Andres wrapper. A black, gold and white band has the Acme name in an old fashioned 1930s script. There’s something classic about the way the band looks.

An earthy mix of barnyard and mild leather aromas are decreeable from the wrapper of the Acme Premier San Andres. From the unlit foot there is a prominent sweet cocoa aroma with a subtler earth note. A slightly firm cold draw allows through and interesting mint chocolate flavor.

Burn: The draw one the Acme Premier San Andres is good, and allows through a fair amount of smoke. Mostly even burning, the Premier San Andres holds is grey ash quite well.

Flavor: The initial puff of the Acme Premier San Andres Churchill begins with cocoa, earth and pepper flavors. Throughout the first third of the cigar the white pepper note slowly mellows, while always remaining present. Some cedar and leather notes mix nicely the earth, cocoa and now much subtler white pepper. During the transition to the second third there is a black coffee flavor that begins to occur. On the retrohale, notes of cedar, white pepper, and coffee all occur simultaneously. For a San Andres cigar, there is a very unique flavor to the Acme Premier. Earth, coffee, cedar and white pepper are the main notes during the second third, while cocoa and leather are the background notes. Something that is reminiscent of hot dogs from a street vendor occurs very briefly before disappearing back into cocoa and coffee. Coffee, cocoa and black pepper are the main flavors through to the end of the final third of the Acme Premier San Andres.

Overall: Coming from the guys behind AKA Cigars (along with a few new partners) the Acme Premier San Andres was a cigar that I was looking forward to since the first time that I heard about it. It turns out the Acme Premier San Andres was a really good cigar, that delivers plenty of earth, coffee, cocoa and white pepper notes. The draw was great, and the burn was decent. Personally, I find the Acme Premier San Andres to be a good full bodied cigar at a reasonable price. The only fault I’ve found with the Acme San Andres is that in any size smaller than a churchill the flavors seem to be muted and a tad bitter in the final third of the cigar, so I tend to stick with the churchill size. The full bodied cigar smoker will find that the Acme Premier San Andres is a great everyday smoke.

Pairing: The Acme Premier San Andres pairs extremely well with a peaty Islay single malt. I find the Lagavulin 16, Ardbeg 10 or Laphroig Quarter Cask all compliment this cigar nicely.

On a side note: Although we don’t take price into account when rating a cigar, something should be said about the reasonable price of the Acme Premier San Andres. In this economy, especially in places like Houston dealing with $30 a barrel oil, consumers are looking for the best possible cigar at the best possible price. At under $8, the Acme San Andres offers a lot of bang for the buck.